CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Two people appeared in court after reportedly abandoning their children at a Conway business.
Kiwa Johnathan Davis, 51, of Conway, and Sarah Mae Smith, 36, of Myrtle Beach, were arrested on Wednesday, according to J. Reuben Long Detention Center Booking Records. Both were booked around 10:30 a.m.
Conway Police Department spokesperson Taylor Newell says Davis and Smith were wanted for unlawful neglect of a child for leaving their children, who are 4 months and 23-months-old, at a business on June 5. Davis and Smith turned themselves into police.
Davis and Smith appeared for a bond hearing on Thursday around 11:30 a.m. Both Smith and Davis are charged with unlawful neglect of a child by a legal custodian. Both received a $25,000 bond and are requesting public defenders. Smith did not comment, but Davis said in court, “This situation has been blown way out of proportion. We did nothing wrong. We tried to work with DSS. Now it’s all over Facebook and the news.”
A detective responded to Davis over a webcam, saying, “Sir, you decided to work with DSS after you were caught in this situation, not before.”
The next scheduled court date for Davis and Smith is August 24 at 1 p.m.
SLED documents show Davis was sentenced to 27 years in jail in 1994 after being convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
Davis killed his wife, Tabitha Davis, November 6, 1993, with a gunshot wound to the head. According to an Horry County police report, officers were called to the Davis home on Ellie Lane just before 8 a.m. that November morning. When officers arrived at the home, they found 22-year-old Tabitha Davis lying on the floor with “what appeared to be a gunshot wound to [the] right eye.”
Officers say Kiwa Davis was kneeling over his wife’s body, which had been covered with a white sheet from the neck down, and a pistol was lying about a foot away from Tabitha Davis’ head. A small steak knife was lying at the victim’s feet, the report says. Kiwa Davis was arrested at his home and later charged with murder. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
Davis entered the Lieber Correctional Institution on September 30, 1994. Jeffrey Taillon, the Communications Director for the South Carolina Department of Corrections, says Davis was released from SCDC custody on April 1, 2008.
Smith, the children’s mother, was previously arrested on May 2, 2017, for neglect of a child by a legal custodian, according to a SLED background check. This charge was dropped in September 2017.
A police report from the Myrtle Beach Police Department says police responded to the New Directions shelter on Campbell Street for a report of child neglect. During an investigation, police found that Smith had been giving a young child “Assured Nitetime,” a “generic medicine which contains 10% alcohol and is for adults and children 12 and up.”
A witness told police Smith was seen on April 27, 2017, “administering the green liquid into a cap and pouring it into the victim’s mouth while he lay in his playpen.” The report also says a witness told police Smith “pours Tylenol in his bottle, without measuring it, and lets the victim drink the medicine.”
According to the report, during the investigation, Smith admitted, “that she gives the child an adult medicine to knock him out when he refuses to sleep.”
Davis and Smith were released from J. Reuben Long Detention Center around 1 p.m. on Thursday, booking records also show.
